Two Concepts of Liberty: An Analysis of Berlin's Seminal Essay

Sir Isaiah Berlin, in his 1958 essay and inaugural lecture, "Two Concepts of Liberty," expands on the ideals of liberty that were synthesized and inculcated by earlier political philosophers. The essay initiates and details an outline of an idealized liberty with two distinct branches: positive and negative. Although the essay is a bit controversial, producing such detractors as Charles Taylor, this seminal piece has staying power and can only be enhanced, not nullified.philosophy;economics;berlin;isaiah;liberty;political

Economic Analysis of Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University is a private research institution of higher education that is housed in a city that has undergone, and is still undergoing, the change from a manufacturing hub to a center of knowledge enterprise. Although colleges and universities are part of a local oligopoly, CMU is a global institution which considers its peers to be among the elite institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, and MIT. Amongst its peers, CMU is on the lower end of the undergraduate student demand spectrum, and it pays its professors significantly less than other great institutions. While CMU is not at risk of low student demand, it faces the same risk of faculty loss to other elite institutions as public institutions face losing their professors to CMU. As a global institution, CMU is affected by exchange rates, and the weak dollar makes a CMU education cheaper to foreign students. However, with the decrease in government funding, CMU, like other higher education institutions, has been forced to look elsewhere for revenue – primarily through tuition increases, private donors, and auxiliary services, to maintain its strong student body, elite faculty, and abundance of resources. While no tentirely shielded from vulnerability, CMU appears to face a sustained future, as long as it is able to continue to adapt to the changing society and economic climate.economic impact; higher education; economics of higher education

Treatment Providers’ Perceptions of Effective Sexual Offender Treatment Modalities

The treatment of sex offenders is a controversial public policy issue, yet the research on what treatment providers perceive to be effective treatment modalities is limited. Using von Bertalanffy’s systems theory as the theoretical foundation, the purpose of this quantitative study was to examine and evaluate the treatment providers’ perceptions of effective treatment modalities. Data were collected from 101 treatment providers located within 6 states in the Midwest through a researcher developed survey. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis. A total of 55 treatment modalities were examined, which were condensed into 5 categories. Findings indicated that the psychoeducational modality was perceived to be the most effective while medication was perceived to be the least effective. The positive social change implications stemming from this study include recommendations for sex offender treatment to implement treatment plans using psychoeducational treatment modalities as their primary treatment option to see if this study’s results can be replicated. Implementation of these plans may reduce sex offender recidivism and provide additional guidance to treatment providers

A New Testament Geography: Description, Perspectives, and Implications for the Field of Geography.

The general purpose of this study is to relate the fields of geography and religion at both the academic and the practical levels. Primarily, it investigates the New Testament description of the land and its human occupancy. Secondarily, it identifies New Testament attitudes toward geography and suggests implications for its study and practice. It describes the geography, both physical and human, for each of the five classes of the document\u27s book in a separate chapter. The chapter on the synoptic gospels discusses mountains, weather, biogeography, agriculture, occupations, and urban geography. Four kinds of soil reveal different responses to the word. While the house of the wise builder stands against the storm, that of the foolish builder falls. In the gospel of John, one\u27s attitude is more important than terrestrial location in the worship of God. The messiah is the true vine and the good shepherd. In Acts, Paul is shipwrecked on the way to Rome. The early church holds possessions in common and distributes to the needy. In the epistles, Paul uses the olive tree to illustrate God\u27s dealings with Jews and Gentiles. Abraham looks for a city designed and built by God. Jerusalem above is a model for the earthly city. New heavens and a new earth are coming. In Revelation, trumpet and bowl plagues devastate much land and water. The righteous and the wicked are harvested at the eschaton. The conclusion identifies seven New Testament attitudes toward geography---the distinction between the literal and the symbolic, teleology in creation, heavenly counterparts, the worlds above and below, the temporality of the world, the destiny of the world, and God as the author of geography. The conclusion also discusses implications for the field of geography. Humans as stewards of the creation are responsible to God. Both the study of specific cases and the formulation of general laws are proper activities. Both physical and human components may form a united geography. Geography has a place for both qualitative and quantitative statements. That the world is passing away may suggest directing research to worthy rather than trivial issues

Studying Effects of Non-Equilibrium Radiative Transfer Via HPC

A goal across many physics and engineering disciplines is to accurately simulate physical systems with radiation-hydrodynamics codes in which the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) is predicted to be violated, such as laser driven hohlraums, stellar coronae, and supernova ejecta. In such regimes, the computational costs to capture relevant physics have been observed to be 3 orders of magnitude higher over the LTE problem. This thesis discusses innovations in non-LTE (NLTE) calculations by leveraging high performance computing (HPC), load balancing, and algorithmic improvements to solve problems that were insoluble with existing techniques. We also present results demonstrating where NLTE is most important in simulation results. In particular, this capability was applied to 3 demonstration problems: a supernova (SN), a 1D problem meant to capture dynamics present in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) hohlraums, and a modified version of the blastwave diagnostic experiment performed at Sandia National Laboratory’s (SNL) Z machine. SN modeling was accomplished with a two stage process, first a radiation hydrodynamics (RH) simulation to model explosive dynamics followed by an offline post-processing stage for calculating quantities analogous to those measured by observers. The use of NLTE physics enabled by this work were important in both stages of this modeling, ultimately resulting qualitatively different results between LTE and NLTE. The 1D hohlraum problem analysis indicates that the quantity of interest (QOI), the analogue of laser entrance hole (LEH) closing time, was mildly sensitive to the use of NLTE physics, but relatively insensitive to atomic model complexity, indicating some detail is needed in the treatment of auto-ionizing states. For non-integrated quantities like the radiation spectral energy density, some modest differences were observed. The Z machine blastwave diagnostic resulted in comparisons between LTE and NLTE, yielding some differences associated with the early dynamics of simulation, particularly with the hohlraum. More detailed comparisons corroborate the importance of NLTE modeling near hohlraum walls, but also support the idea that LTE is a reasonable assumption at late times, demonstrating that work done by experimental designers to avoid NLTE effects was successful

Training and Employment Needs of Personnel in Selected Hospital Food Services in Middle Tennessee

Employment and training needs of food service employees in selected Middle Tennessee hospitals were investigated. Labor turnover, personnel problems, and managerial qualifications also were studied. Questionnaires and structured interviews were used to obtain data. The sample consisted of 18 small capacity hospitals (25 to 100 beds) and eight large capacity hospitals (101 beds or larger). Both present and anticipated future positions for all employee categories (managerial, supervisory, food preparation workers, food service workers, and food sanitation workers) were indicated by the administrator and food service managers. Qualifications for the manager of the food services as desired by the administrator generally were related to formal education (college degree or registered dietitian) and previous experience in the food service industry. Labor turnover was mentioned as a personnel problem by some administrators and tended to be greater in the large hospitals than in the small hospitals. Other personnel problems were generally related to lack of qualified personnel and training needs of the employees. Formal training programs were being conducted in more than half of the hospitals surveyed. However, skills and knowledge considered most important for proficient employees were not always the skills and knowledge currently incorporated in the training programs. Generally, training was indicated as the responsibility of the hospital

MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF RICE COMMODITY SUPPLY CHAIN IN INDONESIA

Food is the main need for every individual that must always be fulfilled. For Indonesia, food is identified with rice because this type of food is a commodity consumed by the Indonesian population. Therefore, the rice crisis can be interrupt economic resilience and national stability. National rice consumption from year to year will continue to increase in line with the increase in Indonesia's population. Although, Indonesia is the third-largest country in the world in producing the most, Indonesia still depends on rice imports. This was done by the government to maintain the national rice supply.The rice supply chain in Indonesia has not been optimum, as indicated by the relatively small profits of producer. In this research, we construct the maximum profit model of direct and indirect media sales of rice for producer, distributor, and retailer. And then, we determine the optimum solution of the model and analysis of the factors in the rice supply chain that affect it. The results showed that  changes in the proportion of demand greatly affects the resulting optimal profit

Singular Immortality: Desirableness through Technology and Liberty

In this essay, I argue that an immortal existence could be desirable. Taking the accounts of Williams and Smuts under careful consideration, I agree with Fischer that an immortal existence could be gratifying. When Fischer argues that it is unfair for Williams to posit that an immortal life must have self-exhausting pleasures and, overall, a better experience than mortal life, he gets to the crux of the argument for immortality: as long as there are positive categorical desires for the individual, then such life-affirming desires will provide an impetus to carry on. In moving past the Teiresias model of a phenomenon that retains memories while changing characters, I argue that a life of intellectual inquiry – which essentially alters the character of the individual while maintaining memories – offers an outward looking existence which provides internal pleasures. Accordingly, with the use of technology, computer simulations have the potential to provide pleasures and experiences that escape reality. In this sense, technology has the potential to supplement an immortal life. We cannot say whether there will be a pinnacle of such learning and pleasure which leads to decreasing returns, but it seems plausible that an immortal being who incorporates learning and pleasure that could potentially lead to innovation and discovery would seek to continue such intellectual inquiry and varied experiences until all learning potentials were exhausted

An analytical study – dynamic behavior of the human hand to hold mechanical handle with and without coating

The primary objective of the study is analytically predicting the anti-vibration coating on the handles and to evaluate the vibration isolation effectiveness. The ISO 10068:2012 two-point driving human physical models are coated with Foam-A material, Foam-B material, and Gel material. The coated ISO models are applied to predict the effectiveness of three different anti-vibrations coating in terms of vibration transmitted to the finger, palm, and the shoulder. The results are obtained as a vibration transmissibility magnitude in the three orthogonal directions (xh, yh, zh) and the results are also compared with uncoated models. A significant level of vibration reductions was found. The proposed model may also be useful for further analysis of anti-vibration coating materials and help designers to develop better handles for vibrating tools